Tropical storm Jangmi has left 31 people dead and seven missing after triggering massive landslides and flash floods in the Philippines, officials said Tuesday.

The storm, known locally
as Seniang, first made landfall Monday morning in Surigao del
Sur, a southeastern province, according to government officials.
Prior to landfall, torrents of rain and wind plagued the region
for three days, causing Surigao del Sur Governor Johnny Piemenel
to declare “a state of calamity.”

The storm sustained winds of 65 kilometers per hour, with gusts
reaching 80 kilometers an hour lashing through the central
Philippines on Tuesday, according to AP.

An estimated 13,000 people were displaced from their homes due to
flood concerns as Jangmi drifted northwest, AFP reported. Some
1,700 had been evacuated prior to the storm’s arrival, Gulf News
reported.

As of late Tuesday afternoon, the eye of the storm was 140
kilometers southwest of central Iloilo City, moving west at 19
kilometers an hour toward western Palawan Island, according to
the government weather bureau. Officials have reported that water
in some areas is “neck deep.”

National civil defense chief Alexander Pama warned that floods
and landslides pose the greatest danger to the population.

“We are focused on floods and landslides because, while the
storm’s winds are weak, it will bring heavy rain,” he told
local radio.

Olive Luces, a regional civil defense official, quoted in the AP,
said that 11 members of a family were killed when their house was
washed away by flash floods in central Cebu province.

An eight-year-old Cebu girl drowned after floodwaters washed her
home away, while two teenage boys were electrocuted to death when
wading through floodwaters in the Bohol province, according to
regional civil defense officer Allen Cabaron, Gulf News reported.
Many houses, meanwhile, have been buried in landslides.